The Ultimate Free Library of 2016 SaaS & Tech Content

2016 has been quite a year for the tech industry. From Pokémon Go to Cyber Security challenges – we have seen some new fascinating trends evolving, with new breakthroughs and some exciting industry news.

So much has happened, and so much has been discussed, and capturing the very best was not an easy task. Still, I managed to gather what I believe are the top 19 reads of 2016, which will definitely get you ready for 2017.

How prepared is your company when it comes to Cybersecurity? This article breaks down the issue of cyber security awareness and the major resilience gap that is currently taking place globally. Included is an easy to digest infographic that breaks down the current facts – from the top 5 barriers to cyber resilience, how to improve your cyber resilience, and the number one cyber threat facing companies today.

Data breaches which affect major companies are all over the news, but it’s the small businesses who are significantly affected by these breaches, yet no one knows about it. Larger companies have more potential to make a comeback, while for a smaller company a data breach has the potential to eliminate it completely. Adam Levin discusses four strategies you can put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen within your company.

The internet is filled with useful words of wisdom for beginner entrepreneurs. But how do you know the piece of advice you read is actually an intelligent piece of advice? Do you wish you could predict what advice actually proves successful for you?

Thinking about all this has led me to the Entrepreneur Subreddit, where I asked experienced entrepreneurs to share the worst piece of advice someone gave them when they first started their business.

People have started noticing self-driving Uber cars in downtown San – Francisco, fueling speculation the ridesharing company could soon be deploying autonomous vehicles for commercial use right where it all started in the Bay Area.

These self-driving cars seen in downtown SF seem to be the same as those used in Uber’s self-driving pilot program in Pittsburgh. Uber recently deployed a fleet of 14 Ford Fusions equipped with radar, cameras and other sensing equipment developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics center.

Pokémon Go may have sparked the world’s craving for augmented reality, but billionaire Mark Cuban says the industry still has a long way to go. He’s banking on machine learning as the next big breakthrough in technology.

Apple continues its (so far successful) journey to connecting the brand to active and healthy living, with the acquisition of Gliimpse, a startup that simplifies the management of health records for patients. This is great news for Apple and Gliimpse, but they are not the only winners in this story.

In this post, we follow Apple’s journey to enter the healthcare industry and try to better understand the impact of their approach on the industry.

Did you miss the discussion at Davos this year? This conference is held every year in Switzerland to discuss issues including robots, terrorism, and migration – just to name a few. This year however, cybersecurity took over the agenda.

There are three trends that are being largely discussed by CEO’s and heads of state this year regarding cyber intelligence and cyber security, and Fortune takes us into the discussions. It seems that the key takeaway is that resilience is critical – find out how to protect your business today!

Danny Wong discusses some common mistakes salespeople make when attempting to sell a software. SaaS sales require a different approach than other types of sales, and it’s important to focus your efforts on learning these tactics in order to successfully sell your SaaS product.

Discover the 5 pillars of the complete framework for successful inbound marketing: Email Marketing, Integration with current systems, Content marketing, Costumer Segmentation and social media. This combo will provide increased traffic and increased engagement.

While resilience against cybersecurity is key to maintaining the security of your data, many might not know the first steps to take to protect their organizations – specifically small businesses. PC magazine has broken down 10 steps from security experts you can take towards protecting your startup or small business.

Some steps you can take today include cloud security, multi factor authentication, IT consultation, and email security. Read more about what experts like Bill O’Connell, Vice President of Global Trust Assurance at ADP, are recommending to protect your business against Cyber-attacks and data breaches.

In his article, Simon Ouderkik identifies a key issue in the SaaS world today. Often, SaaS companies are too focused on their product, and are losing out on more potential customers by not taking advantage of their support staff. At the end of the day the customers’ satisfaction rates with the software will make or break the success of the company.

True, there is a learning curve as Ouderkik points out, but the people who aren’t as quick to learn the technical stuff are falling through the cracks because there is not customer support ready to help them learn how to utilize the software.

Analyst firm MarketsandMarkets says machine learning will be the biggest component in the explosive expansion of the artificial-intelligence market, projected to reach $5.5 billion by 2020, with 50 percent compound annual growth. This article explores the possibilities that come with the development of ML, examining its effect on the marketing industry.

Startup culture has been lampooned recently for excess spending. When shows like Silicon Valley make a good point about our spending culture we might want to take a second and breath. While this post isn’t SaaS specific, it does affect all of us and our inspirations. Don’t forget to stay humble.

Jerdeen De Witt tells his SaaS story including lessons he learned from his recent design completion. De Witt lists each step of the process outlining what he learned from each phase in the development process. I think this is a very useful article, as it provides a complete explanation and summary of what it really takes to design a software from beginning to end.

Although it is predicted that robots will take over 16% of US jobs by 2025, according to Forrester, Thomas Claburn states that it won’t be as dire as people think. Over the same period there is said to be a 9% job increase as well. Claburn discusses which professions will be most affected, and what we can expect in the future.

Cybersecurity has become the hot topic over the years, and maybe that’s because of data breaches that are becoming all too common. When Target’s data was breached in 2013, they estimated their losses at $250 million dollars, it gets many of us thinking if this type of breach could have been prevented.

The Harvard Business Review discusses why Executive teams needs to be personally responsible for understanding where their business’s strengths and weakness lie and how to execute a response for attacks.

According to a survey conducted by BAE systems of 300 executives in the IT and tech industry, “40% (of those execs) lacked a clear understanding of the cyber security protocols within their organization.” This data proves that companies, leaders specifically, need to place a stronger emphasis on providing the tools and planning needed to protect their employees, customers, and their assets.

Tomasz Tunguz brings us a very interesting way to quantify the B2C2B marketing of today. Too often we pitch our products to head honchos who don’t really understand the in’s and out’s of the product or other related fields. As we start selling more directly to the IT guys it creates a significant shift in how we word our presentations.

An insightful article sharing some new ideas on how to win with your SaaS product despite growing competition. It touches the important topics of creating innovative ideas, assuming you are wrong sometimes, and how to build stable companies brick by brick.

Based on Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm” book, this article clarifies what is the pitfall for many new technologies – the wide gap between the tech savvy first users and the “old school” hesitant mainstream clients. SaaS – being a rather new buzz world and an umbrella of innovative new technologies, is hardly understood by companies and users alike, and therefore suffers greatly from something called the ‘Technology Adoption Curve’.

In this article, Cara Hogan explains this, and even provides us with an amazing analysis of 3 SaaS companies and how they managed to bridge over this chasm and even take advantage of it. Each one in its own unique strategy.